The New Hacker's Dictionary

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Node:mode bit, Next:[8829]modulo, Previous:[8830]mode, Up:[8831]= M

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mode bit n.

[common] A [8832]flag, usually in hardware, that selects between two (usually quite different) modes of operation. The connotations are different from [8833]flag bit in that mode bits are mainly written during a boot or set-up phase, are seldom explicitly read, and seldom change over the lifetime of an ordinary program. The classic example was the EBCDIC-vs.-ASCII bit (#12) of the Program Status Word of the IBM 360.

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Node:modulo, Next:[8834]molly-guard, Previous:[8835]mode bit, Up:[8836]= M =

modulo /mod'yu-loh/ prep.

Except for. An overgeneralization of mathematical terminology; one can consider saying that 4 equals 22 except for the 9s (4 = 22 mod 9). "Well, LISP seems to work okay now, modulo that [8837]GC bug." "I feel fine today modulo a slight headache."

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Node:molly-guard, Next:[8838]Mongolian Hordes technique, Previous:[8839]modulo, Up:[8840]= M =

molly-guard /mol'ee-gard/ n.

[University of Illinois] A shield to prevent tripping of some [8841]Big Red Switch by clumsy or ignorant hands. Originally used of the plexiglass covers improvised for the BRS on an IBM 4341 after a programmer's toddler daughter (named Molly) frobbed it twice in one day. Later generalized to covers over stop/reset switches on disk drives and

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Node:monstrosity, Next:[8859]monty, Previous:[8860]monkey scratch, Up:[8861]= M =

monstrosity

1. n. A ridiculously [8862]elephantine program or system, esp. one that is buggy or only marginally functional. 2. adj. The quality of being monstrous (see `Overgeneralization' in the discussion of jargonification). See also [8863]baroque.

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Node:monty, Next:[8864]Moof, Previous:[8865]monstrosity, Up:[8866]=

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monty /mon'tee/ n.

1. [US Geological Survey] A program with a ludicrously complex user interface written to perform extremely trivial tasks. An example would be a menu-driven, button clicking, pulldown, pop-up windows program for listing directories. The original monty was an infamous weather-reporting program, Monty the Amazing Weather Man, written at the USGS. Monty had a widget-packed X-window interface with over 200 buttons; and all monty actually did was [8867]FTP files off the network. 2. [Great Britain; commonly capitalized as `Monty' or as `the Full Monty'] 16 megabytes of memory, when fitted to an IBM-PC or compatible. A standard PC-compatible using the ATor ISA-bus with a normal BIOS cannot access more than 16 megabytes of RAM. Generally used of a PC, Unix workstation, etc. to mean `fully populated with' memory, disk-space or some other desirable resource. This usage may be related to a TV commercial for Del Monte fruit juice, in which one of the characters insisted on "the full Del Monte"; but see the World Wide Words article [8868]"The Full Monty" for discussion of the rather complex etymology that may lie behind this. Compare American [8869]moby.

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Moof /moof/

[Macintosh users] 1. n. The call of a semi-legendary creature, properly called the [8873]dogcow. (Some previous versions of this entry claimed, incorrectly, that Moof was the name of the creature.) 2. adj. Used to flag software that's a hack, something untested and on the edge. On one Apple CD-ROM, certain folders such as "Tools & Apps (Moof!)" and "Development Platforms (Moof!)", are so marked to indicate that they contain software not fully tested or sanctioned by the powers that be. When you open these folders you cross the boundary into hackerland. 3. v. On the Microsoft Network, the term `moof' has gained popularity as a verb meaning `to be suddenly disconnected by the system'. One might say "I got moofed".

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Node:Moore's Law, Next:[8874]moose call, Previous:[8875]Moof, Up:[8876]= M =

Moore's Law /morz law/ prov.

The observation that the logic density of silicon integrated circuits has closely followed the curve (bits per square inch) = 2^(t - 1962) where t is time in years; that is, the amount of information storable on a given amount of silicon has roughly doubled every year since the technology was invented. This relation, first uttered in 1964 by semiconductor engineer Gordon Moore (who co-founded Intel four years later) held until the late 1970s, at which point the doubling period slowed to 18 months. The doubling period remained at that value through time of writing (late 1999). Moore's Law is apparently self-fulfilling. The implication is that somebody, somewhere is going to be able to build a better chip than you if you rest on

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your laurels, so you'd better start pushing hard on the problem. See also [8877]Parkinson's Law of Data and [8878]Gates's Law.

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Node:moose call, Next:[8879]moria, Previous:[8880]Moore's Law, Up:[8881]= M =

moose call n.

See [8882]whalesong.

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Node:moria, Next:[8883]MOTAS, Previous:[8884]moose call, Up:[8885]= M =

moria /mor'ee-*/ n.

Like [8886]nethack and [8887]rogue, one of the large PD Dungeons-and-Dragons-like simulation games, available for a wide range of machines and operating systems. The name is from Tolkien's Mines of Moria; compare [8888]elder days, [8889]elvish. The game is extremely addictive and a major consumer of time better used for hacking. See also [8890]nethack, [8891]rogue, [8892]Angband.

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MOTAS /moh-tahz/ n.

[Usenet: Member Of The Appropriate Sex, after [8896]MOTOS and [8897]MOTSS] A potential or (less often) actual sex partner. See also [8898]SO.

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Node:MOTOS, Next:[8899]MOTSS, Previous:[8900]MOTAS, Up:[8901]=

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MOTOS /moh-tohs/ n.

[acronym from the 1970 U.S. census forms via Usenet: Member Of The Opposite Sex] A potential or (less often) actual sex partner. See [8902]MOTAS, [8903]MOTSS, [8904]SO. Less common than MOTSS or [8905]MOTAS, which has largely displaced it.

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Node:MOTSS, Next:[8906]mouse ahead, Previous:[8907]MOTOS, Up:[8908]= M =

MOTSS /mots/ or /M-O-T-S-S/ n.

[from the 1970 U.S. census forms via Usenet] Member Of The Same Sex, esp. one considered as a possible sexual partner. The gay-issues newsgroup on Usenet is called soc.motss. See [8909]MOTOS and [8910]MOTAS, which derive from it. See also [8911]SO.

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Node:mouse ahead, Next:[8912]mouse around, Previous:[8913]MOTSS, Up:[8914]= M =

mouse ahead vi.

Point-and-click analog of `type ahead'. To manipulate a computer's pointing device (almost always a mouse in this usage, but not necessarily) and its selection or command buttons before a computer program is ready to accept such input, in anticipation of the program accepting the input. Handling this properly is rare, but it can help make a [8915]WIMP environment much

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more usable, assuming the users are familiar with the behavior of the user interface.

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Node:mouse around, Next:[8916]mouse belt, Previous:[8917]mouse ahead, Up:[8918]= M =

mouse around vi.

To explore public portions of a large system, esp. a network such as Internet via [8919]FTP or [8920]TELNET, looking for interesting stuff to [8921]snarf.

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Node:mouse belt, Next:[8922]mouse droppings, Previous:[8923]mouse around, Up:[8924]= M =

mouse belt n.

See [8925]rat belt.

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Node:mouse droppings, Next:[8926]mouse elbow, Previous:[8927]mouse belt, Up:[8928]= M =

mouse droppings n.

[MS-DOS] Pixels (usually single) that are not properly restored when the mouse pointer moves away from a particular location on the screen, producing the appearance that the mouse pointer has left droppings behind. The major causes for this problem are programs that write to the screen memory corresponding to the mouse pointer's current location without hiding the mouse pointer first, and mouse drivers that do not quite support

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the graphics mode in use.

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Node:mouse elbow, Next:[8929]mouso, Previous:[8930]mouse droppings, Up:[8931]= M =

mouse elbow n.

A tennis-elbow-like fatigue syndrome resulting from excessive use of a [8932]WIMP environment. Similarly, `mouse shoulder'; GLS reports that he used to get this a lot before he taught himself to be ambimoustrous.

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Node:mouso, Next:[8933]MS-DOS, Previous:[8934]mouse elbow, Up:[8935]= M =

mouso /mow'soh/ n.

[by analogy with `typo'] An error in mouse usage resulting in an inappropriate selection or graphic garbage on the screen. Compare [8936]thinko, [8937]braino.

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MS-DOS /M-S-dos/ n.

[MicroSoft Disk Operating System] A [8941]clone of [8942]CP/M for the 8088 crufted together in 6 weeks by hacker Tim Paterson at Seattle Computer Products, who called the original QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) and is said to have regretted it ever since. Microsoft licensed QDOS order to have something to demo for IBM on time, and the rest is history. Numerous features, including vaguely Unix-like but rather

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broken support for subdirectories, I/O redirection, and pipelines, were hacked into Microsoft's 2.0 and subsequent versions; as a result, there are two or more incompatible versions of many system calls, and MS-DOS programmers can never agree on basic things like what character to use as an option switch or whether to be case-sensitive. The resulting appalling mess is now the highest-unit-volume OS in history. Often known simply as DOS, which annoys people familiar with other similarly abbreviated operating systems (the name goes back to the mid-1960s, when it was attached to IBM's first disk operating system for the 360). The name further annoys those who know what the term [8943]operating system does (or ought to) connote; DOS is more properly a set of relatively simple interrupt services. Some people like to pronounce DOS like "dose", as in "I don't work on dose, man!", or to compare it to a dose of brain-damaging drugs (a slogan button in wide circulation among hackers exhorts: "MS-DOS: Just say No!"). See [8944]mess-dos, [8945]ill-behaved.

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Node:mu, Next:[8946]MUD, Previous:[8947]MS-DOS, Up:[8948]= M =

mu /moo/

The correct answer to the classic trick question "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?". Assuming that you have no wife or you have never beaten your wife, the answer "yes" is wrong because it implies that you used to beat your wife and then stopped, but "no" is worse because it suggests that you have one and are still beating her. According to various Discordians and Douglas Hofstadter the correct answer is usually "mu", a Japanese word alleged to mean "Your question cannot be answered because it depends on incorrect assumptions". Hackers tend to be sensitive to logical inadequacies in language, and many have adopted this suggestion with enthusiasm. The word `mu' is actually from Chinese, meaning `nothing'; it is used in mainstream Japanese in that sense. Native speakers do not recognize the Discordian question-denying use, which almost certainly derives from overgeneralization of the answer in the following well-known Rinzai Zen [8949]koan:

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A monk asked Joshu, "Does a dog have the Buddha nature?" Joshu retorted, "Mu!"

See also [8950]has the X nature, [8951]Some AI Koans, and Douglas Hofstadter's "Gšdel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" (pointer in the [8952]Bibliography in Appendix C.

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Node:MUD, Next:[8953]muddie, Previous:[8954]mu, Up:[8955]= M =

MUD /muhd/ n.

[acronym, Multi-User Dungeon; alt. Multi-User Dimension] 1. A class of [8956]virtual reality experiments accessible via the Internet. These are real-time chat forums with structure; they have multiple `locations' like an adventure game, and may include combat, traps, puzzles, magic, a simple economic system, and the capability for characters to build more structure onto the database that represents the existing world. 2. vi. To play a MUD. The acronym MUD is often lowercased and/or verbed; thus, one may speak of `going mudding', etc.

Historically, MUDs (and their more recent progeny with names of MUform) derive from a hack by Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw on the University of Essex's DEC-10 in the early 1980s; descendants of that game still exist today and are sometimes generically called BartleMUDs. There is a widespread myth (repeated, unfortunately, by earlier versions of this lexicon) that the name MUD was trademarked to the commercial MUD run by Bartle on British Telecom (the motto: "You haven't lived 'til you've died on MUD!"); however, this is false -- Richard Bartle explicitly placed `MUD' in the public domain in 1985. BT was upset at this, as they had already printed trademark claims on some maps and posters, which were released and created the myth.

Students on the European academic networks quickly improved on the MUD concept, spawning several new MUDs (VAXMUD, AberMUD,